Marketplace Highlight: Tom Bartel (
@bartel_tom )
“My work takes cues from a “shotgun blast” of influences ranging from antiquity to popular culture and is constructed to refer to both the body and also charged, stylized, surrogates for the body such as dolls, toys, and figurines. The questions that arise from this cultural mishmash fuel my creative practice. I am interested in both the fragmentation and simplification of human form, especially how this decision encourages, if not requires, the viewer to participate with the work. Within this context, I view that which is absent as significant as that which is present. Furthermore, I use the human condition as a point of departure where themes related to gender, rites of passage, fertility and mortality are constant “threads” within my creative practice.”
Tom Bartel maintains a private studio in Athens, Ohio, and is Associate Professor and Ceramics Chairperson at Ohio University. He has exhibited and lectured nationally and internationally, received Individual Artist Fellowships from the Pennsylvania Arts Council, Kentucky Arts Council, and Ohio Arts Council, and has been widely published, including in Ceramics Monthly and American Craft.
You can shop these amazing pieces and more at the Knoxville Gallery, open Wednesday-Saturday, located at 110 S. Gay St. #arrowmont
